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Founded in 1919, MWPAI continues to evolvewhile maintaining traditions of fine art andculture. The Museum of Art features a renowned permanent collection, fascinating exhibitions and education for all ages.

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Explore the Museum’s current, future and past exhibitions along with our permanent collection of 300 years of American painting, nineteenth-century decorative arts, European Modernism, Japanese prints, and much more.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection

June 16 - September 8, 2019

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection is a spectacular presentation that features more than 60 objects, spanning more than 30 years of Tiffany’s prolific and celebrated career. The exhibition is an exploration of craftsmanship, ingenuity, and pure aesthetic beauty that also examines the themes of 19th-century women artisans and innovations in industrial technology. Exceptionally versatile, prolific, and popular, Tiffany worked in nearly all of the media available to artists and designers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—glass, ceramic, metal, jewelry, mosaics, enamel, and paint—using natural forms for his innovative designs.

Tiffany’s technical brilliance enabled him to convey his awe of the natural world through a range of objects, from household items to singular masterpieces. He earned international acclaim for his artistic output, receiving awards in exhibitions across Europe and the United States, and his work shaped American taste in the 1890s through the 1920s. Tiffany artwork was enthusiastically collected by museums and private collectors throughout his lifetime, and continues to be highly sought after.

A catalogue, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection by David A. Hanks with essay by Richard H. Driehaus and photographs by John Faier, is available for purchase as a softcover or hardcover from the MWPAI Museum Shop.

The Richard H. Driehaus Collection is one of the country’s most important private collections of works by American decorative designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. Widely recognized as the gold standard for American decorative objects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, works by Tiffany and his associated firms are a core collecting area for Richard H. Driehaus. Since acquiring his first Tiffany Studios stained glass window in 1978, the businessman and philanthropist has expanded his collection to over 1,500 Tiffany works, including ecclesiastical and secular windows, Favrile glass, vases, lamps, candlesticks, accessories, and furniture, to preserve for future generations as well as to enjoy personally.

In 2003, The Richard H. Driehaus Museum was founded in Chicago to preserve and publicly exhibit American and European fine and decorative arts of the Gilded Age (1870–1900). Today, the Museum, which opened to the public in 2008 after an extensive five-year restoration, is a stunning showcase for late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art and design, displayed against the magnificent interiors of the historic Samuel M. Nickerson Mansion (1879–1883).

ABOUT THE CURATOR

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, David A. Hanks served as Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago (1969–74) and Curator, Department of American Arts, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1974–77).

Among the many exhibitions he organized during his museum tenure was The Decorative Arts of Frank Lloyd Wright (1977–79) for the Smithsonian Institution. The catalogue of this exhibition continues to serve as a basic text for the decorative arts field. Until 2000, he was director of Exhibitions International in New York, a non-profit exhibition service. Since 2000, he has been Curator of the Stewart Program for Modern Design, Montreal, and is the consulting curator for the George R. Kravis II Collection. He has served on curatorial teams for numerous exhibitions, including High Styles: Twentieth Century American Design for the Whitney Museum, 1986, and In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. His other books include Innovative Furniture in America, 1981; Donald Deskey: Decorative Designs and Interiors, 1987; and The Century of Modern Design, 2010, for the Stewart Program.

To arrange a private, docent-led tour of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection, the permanent collection, or other special exhibitions, please contact the Museum Education Department at least two weeks in advance at 315-797-0000, ext. 2170.

Take an exclusive after-hours tour of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection with MWPAI President and decorative arts historian Anna D’Ambrosio. Learn about some of the everyday and extraordinary things that happen behind-the-scenes while planning for and installing a major exhibition. A very limited opportunity!

Host Michael Lasser Presents E-Lec-Tri-Ci-Ty! Songs From The Time Of Tiffany$15 MWPAI members, $25 general public, $10 students

For more than 35 years, radio personality and music historian Michael Lasser has been speaking about popular music as social history, about songs and the America they reflect. In this program, singer Cindy Miller and singer/pianist Alan Jones perform songs from the time of Louis C. Tiffany with insight and delight, while Lasser gives entertaining historical context. In the years before World War I, when Tiffany was providing a way to make electric light beautiful, America hitched its new horseless carriage to a technological star. Our songwriters were there to give voice to a time when age-old dreams became commonplace reality. Book signing follows with light refreshments and a cash bar.

Victorians were fascinated by murder and crime, fictional or real. Join us for an 1890s fictional you-solve-it murder mystery (involving a prized Tiffany vase) that happens during a cocktail party at which you are a guest. Period dress is encouraged. Upon arrival, guests may request a “character” to portray for the evening. Several vignettes performed throughout Fountain Elms will offer clues to solving the mystery. Can you uncover the villain(s) in this Gilded Age whodunit?

Experience the live excitement of a full-blown spectacle of glass artistry!

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute will bring the thrilling Hot Glass Roadshow from The Corning Museum of Glass to the MWPAI Museum of Art front lawn. Throughout the week, enjoy an array of hot glass demonstrations and programs offered to the general public. Bring your groups to tour, view demonstrations, and enjoy lunch or afternoon tea. Groups scheduling in advance will enjoy an exclusive opportunity to reserve front row seats for the hot glass demonstrations.

Take an exclusive after-hours tour of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection with MWPAI President and decorative arts historian Anna D’Ambrosio. Learn about some of the everyday and extraordinary things that happen behind-the-scenes while planning for and installing a major exhibition. A very limited opportunity!